California or Bust!

Okay-vacation pictures! I have a lot to put on here...just fair warning. We decided to get away for some fun this fall after everything in our life started to slow down. We thought one last hurrah of warm weather would be nice before our New England winters blew in. In the end, I found some cheap plane tickets to San Diego, we called up our dear friends, Peter & Liz Lignos, who live there, and before you know it, we were headed to the West Coast. Our trip was from Thursday to Tuesday (oh how I love the flexible scheduling as a nurse!) so we really had Friday-Monday to plan the fun stuff.
First, we rented a Toyota Sienna while we were there. Giving the whole minivan idea a test run. It was fabulous. We were able to fit 4 adults and 4 kids with carseats in it with room leftover. I was impressed.
On Friday, we loaded up and headed to Sea World! The kids had a great time! There were only a small crowd of people there so we basically got to get into anything we wanted right away. No waiting in lines at all. The day was gorgeous! We all enjoyed the animals, the Shamu show, and even a little face painting at the end of the day.

























The next day we hung out at their house and spent a few hours at the beach. It wasn't really the sunbathing kind of day...cloudy, big waves, and a bit chilly. But that didn't stop my daughter from stripping down to her swimsuit and jumping right in. She was fearless! She saw all the surfers out there and just assumed she could do it too. Thank goodness we didn't have a surfboard cause she would have tried! Ben ate the sand and hung out with me while Jason and Abby got wet from head to toe.





On Sunday, we loaded up again and headed for Disneyland. Tickets were bought and we had to go on this day. Only problem was that my dear daughter had a fever and wasn't feeling well at all. She was a trooper-rode all the rides, had fun...but I think this day was a bit fuzzy for her. She doesn't remember much after it was all said and done. There was a much bigger crowd here so we waited about 20-30 minutes for each ride. Plus we came right when they were switching over to Christmas from the Halloween stuff. So the whole Small World area was closed, and they were filming Stevie Wonder there that day to open up their Christmas Spectacular. A little crazy, but we had fun. We did meet three princesses when we first got there-Jasmine, Belle, and Ariel. That was a highlight for the girls.

Halloween Pictures

I have to admit...I'm just one of those moms who likes to match her kids. Granted, mine are a boy and girl and 3 years apart. But I try to make it happen on occasion. I know, I know...it's just me. So for Halloween, I always present the idea to Abby like she and Ben should be pair...Mickey and Minnie, Raggedy Ann & Andy, etc. Her idea was Tom and Jerry. She loves that cartoon. Loves it. But the costumes for it were few and far between and kinda ugly. So our second idea was for Bob and Larry from Veggietales. The costumes were cute and comfortable. There's nothing like a cute costume that's so uncomfortable the kid won't even wear it. What's the point?
So our version of Halloween is to stop at our neighbor's homes to say hello and then head over to our church for our Trunk or Treat. All the teenagers at church come up with different themes and dress up and decorate the trunks of their vehicles. They are all set up in a big circle, so it's fun for the little kids to go around the parking lot, get some candy, play some games, eat cotton candy, and jump in the big bouncy house inside. Then we're done and home by bedtime. Simple and innocent.
This was our first Halloween on Blueberry Lane. Most of our neighbors are older retired couples. We found out the were the old school Halloween candy givers..they gave a real candy bar. As in the original size! I haven't seen that in years! We got to meet a few that we hadn't had the chance to meet yet. Very sweet people on this street (no pun intended). Anyway...church was a lot of fun. We got quite a few comments on the Bob and Larry costumes.

Enjoying the Fall Weather

Just a few pictures outside with the kids. It was one of those gorgeous fall days you wish you could bottle up and save for many more days. We were just enjoying having a big yard and a neighborhood sidewalk. My mums were in full bloom, my huge red maple tree in the front yard was blazing its beautiful fiery colors, and my address plaque was just put up (yeah!).

Apple Trees and Pumpkin Patches

Early in October, we decided all four of us desperately needed a Family Fun Day. So we thought that a trip out to Bishops Orchards would be a great way to spend a Saturday morning. The forecast was calling for rain, but all we saw were cloudy skies. I called to make sure that apple picking was still open that day (due to the forecast..so far, so good). We loaded up and talked all the way there about how fun it's going to be to pick apples off the trees...my daughter was beyond excited. When we get there, we first stop to check out the pumpkin patch, the animals, the tractor...all that fun stuff. Then we head off to pick apples and realize that they had indeed decided to cancel apple picking that day (still no rain though). Mercy me, my Abby was so upset. I was kicking myself for talking about it so much with her earlier. She sobbed and sobbed...our only reconciliation was to head back to their country store and buy some apples and maybe a sweet treat for all of us. 30 minutes later, we went through the checkout lane and paid $75 for all of our goodies....apples, fudge, kettle corn popcorn, apple pie, etc. Picking apples would've been much cheaper...but we had a good day after all.

Abby's First Day of Preschool

Yes, I'm horribly late in updating. My need-to-do list is never-ending and overwhelming at times. But I'll show you the fruits of our labors in a different post. So-back to September. Here's our sweet girl's first day of preschool (her 2nd year). Last year, she went to Susanna Wesley Nursery School two days a week. I loved that preschool. It was wonderful. But with moving to a different town, it would have made the drive there 25 minutes each way. Doing that 3 days a week wasn't my idea of a good experience. So we checked out New Life Nursery School which is only 8 minutes away and got the last available opening for the 3 day program. At first, it took a bit to get used to everything and meet new people. I am quite happy with it though. It has more of a Christian educational approach with learning Bible verses, etc. Abby is quite the outgoing girl and has made a whole new set of good friends. (In the picture of her sitting down to color...the little boy next to her is Christopher. He was her first friend there and they are quite the pair. He and Abby are the best of friends. It's so cute...it's hard to contain myself when they see each other and shyly say, "Hi Abby" and "Hi Christopher" and then 5 minutes later they start playing together like old times.)
Here's her first day of school pictures. She also got her new hot pink booster seat the day before so it was a thrilling ride to preschool.